Read v. t. [imp. & p. p. Read p. pr. & vb. n. Reading.]
 1. To advise; to counsel. [Obs.] See Rede.
    Therefore, I read thee, get thee to God's word, and thereby try all doctrine.   --Tyndale.
 2. To interpret; to explain; as, to read a riddle.
 3. To tell; to declare; to recite. [Obs.]
    But read how art thou named, and of what kin.   --Spenser.
 4. To go over, as characters or words, and utter aloud, or recite to one's self inaudibly; to take in the sense of, as of language, by interpreting the characters with which it is expressed; to peruse; as, to read a discourse; to read the letters of an alphabet; to read figures; to read the notes of music, or to read music; to read a book.
    Redeth [read ye] the great poet of Itaille.   --Chaucer.
    Well could he rede a lesson or a story.   --Chaucer.
 5. Hence, to know fully; to comprehend.
    Who is't can read a woman?   --Shak.
 6. To discover or understand by characters, marks, features, etc.; to learn by observation.
 An armed corse did lie,
 In whose dead face he read great magnanimity.   --Spenser.
 Those about her
 From her shall read the perfect ways of honor.   --Shak.
 7. To make a special study of, as by perusing textbooks; as, to read theology or law.
 To read one's self in, to read aloud the Thirty-nine Articles and the Declaration of Assent, -- required of a clergyman of the Church of England when he first officiates in a new benefice.